Eel Fishing on a Foggy Swedish Beach

Joseph Stroud

Pulled from the seathe severed headof a horseeye socketsrunneling with eelscaught by a fishermanwho stuffs themin a sackand walksdown the beachover sandthe color of fogthe color of seadisappearinginto where the worldused to be

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Photo:
Bruce Hobson

Joseph Stroud is the author of six books of poetry, among them Of This World: New and Selected Poems, which was named by SFSU’s Poetry Center as the outstanding book by an American poet in 2010. It was also a finalist for the PEN America Literary Award, the Commonwealth California Book of the Year, and the Northern California Book Award. His other awards include a Pushcart Prize, the Witter Bynner Fellowship in Poetry from the Library of Congress, the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature. He divides his time between a home in Santa Cruz on the central California coast, a cabin in the Sierra Nevada, and a studio aerie in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Port Townsend, Washington

“By ‘dismantling one moment from the next,’ Stroud reminds us that joy belongs to everyone and is found everywhere.”’
Santa Cruz Sentinel

“Like all the best poets Stroud makes the earth again consolable.”
—Jim Harrison

“One of the finest collections of poems I’ve read in years—intelligent, sensuous, moving, full of human insight.”
Ploughshares

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